Footwear with interchangeable electronic faces

ABSTRACT

A footwear covering system includes a piece of footwear having a sole with a perimeter boundary material and a footwear cover attached to the piece of footwear. The footwear cover includes an attachment device, a sheath attached to the resilient clamp and forming an elongate arcuate cover and indicia on the sheath portraying the face of a character. The attachment device may include a snap-fit connector and/or a resilient clamp with an inner surface with grippers, the resilient clamp being shaped to conform with the perimeter boundary material of the sole of the piece of footwear. The footwear cover may include a battery compartment housing a battery, and in some embodiments the snap-fit connector comprises conductors that establish an electrical connection when the snap-fit connector is mated with a complementary connector on the piece of footwear.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This international patent application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/532,052 filed Sep. 7, 2011 and entitled “Footwear with Lights and Interchangeable Faces.” The contents of this prior application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety as if set forth verbatim.

FIELD

The following description relates generally to footwear, and more particularly to novelty footwear with lights and novelty footwear with removable and interchangeable faces.

BACKGROUND

Footwear, in particular footwear for children, can be a costly but necessary clothing item. Due to the fact that children are constantly outgrowing shoes, it becomes expensive to provide a child with a wide variety of shoes that will quickly be outgrown. Accordingly, there is a need for a footwear system that provides a wide variety of shoe appearances without the need for buying multiple pairs of shoes. Ideally, the footwear system would also incorporate lights to provide a more unique appearance.

Additionally, people of all ages enjoy novelty footwear such as slippers, sandals and other shoes. For example, many people wear novelty slippers with animal or characters faces. However, it is costly to purchase multiple different novelty shoes, in particular if the novelty shoes incorporate lights. Accordingly, there is a need for a footwear system that provides multiple different lighted shoe exteriors without the need for buying multiple pairs of shoes.

SUMMARY

The embodiments disclosed below satisfy these needs.

The following simplified summary is provided in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the claimed subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview, and is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter. Its purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.

In one aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a foot covering includes a foot receiving enclosure having a sole, side panels and a front panel, and at least two lights attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure. A battery may be mounted to the foot receiving enclosure and connected to an activatable switch which is also connected to the at least two lights for making and breaking an electrical connection between the battery and the at least two lights. Additionally, a face may be formed on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the face having two eyes formed by the at least two lights attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure.

The activatable switch may include an accelerometer so that the switch is activated when the accelerometer detects an acceleration of the foot covering greater than a threshold acceleration, for example when the user clicks their heels together or collides the foot covering with an object. The lights may be any luminescent device including light emitting diodes and/or fluorescent/phosphorescent material.

In another embodiment, a foot covering includes interchangeable faces. A foot receiving enclosure has a sole, side panels and a front panel with a face mounting device. At least two light mounts attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure. A battery may be mounted to the foot receiving enclosure and electrically connected to the at least two light mounts. An interchangeable face having two eyes is removably attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure. One or more lights may be mounted to each of the at least two light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure. In particular, the lights may represent eyes or other facial features on the interchangeable face. In other embodiments, the interchangeable face may have two eyes formed by two apertures so that when the interchangeable face is attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the lights mounted to the light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure are visible through the apertures of the interchangeable face.

In other embodiments, the lights mounted to the at least two light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure are integral with the interchangeable face. When the interchangeable face is removed from the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the lights are disconnected from the at least two light mounts. The lights may be light bulbs, light emitting diodes, or fluorescent/phosphorescent material. The face mounting device may include a hook and loop fastener, a snap-fit connector, or other suitable fastening or attachment device.

Another embodiment of a foot covering system with interchangeable faces includes a foot receiving enclosure having a sole, side panels and a front panel with a face mounting device. An interchangeable face is removably attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure. The interchangeable face includes two eyes formed from two lights attached to the interchangeable face, a battery attached to the interchangeable face and connected to the two lights, and a switch connected to the two lights and the battery for making and breaking an electrical connection between the two lights and the battery. The two lights are light emitting diodes or other luminescent devices. The face mounting device may include a hook and loop fastener and/or a snap-fit connector.

In another embodiment a footwear covering system includes a piece of footwear having a sole with a perimeter boundary material and a footwear cover attached to the piece of footwear. The footwear cover includes an attachment device, a sheath attached to the resilient clamp and forming an elongate arcuate cover and indicia on the sheath portraying the face of a character. The attachment device may include a snap-fit connector and/or a resilient clamp with an inner surface with grippers, the resilient clamp being shaped to conform with the perimeter boundary material of the sole of the piece of footwear. The footwear cover may include a battery compartment housing a battery, and in some embodiments the snap-fit connector comprises conductors that establish an electrical connection when the snap-fit connector is mated with a complementary connector on the piece of footwear.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the claimed subject matter may be employed and the claimed subject matter is intended to include all such aspects and their equivalents. Other advantages and novel features may become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a front view of one embodiment of footwear with front-facing lights and a fluorescent strip.

FIG. 1B is a rear view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 1C is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1A.

FIG. 2A is a front view of one embodiment of footwear with a removable and interchangeable face.

FIG. 2B is a rear view of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 2C is a side view of the embodiment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of one embodiment of a detachable cover for footwear, illustrating grippers as attachment devices.

FIG. 4 is a bottom view of another embodiment of a detachable cover for footwear, illustrating snap-fit connectors as attachment devices.

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of another embodiment of a detachable cover for footwear, illustrating a retaining clip as an attachment device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a foot covering includes a foot receiving enclosure that has a front panel. The front panel includes a depiction of a face, for example the face of a cartoon character, animal, or the like. The eyes of the face are formed from lights, in particular light emitting diodes. The foot receiving enclosure also includes a battery for supplying electricity to the lights. Additionally, a switch is disposed between the battery and the lights in order to provide a mechanism for making and breaking an electrical connection between the battery and the lights. A wearer of the foot covering activates the lights forming the eyes of the face on the front of the foot covering by activating the switch. The switch may be, for example, a toggle switch, a button, or the like. Additionally, the switch may include an accelerometer that automatically activates the lights when the foot covering is subjected to sufficient acceleration, for example when a wearer of the foot coverings taps his or her feet together.

In another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a foot covering includes a foot receiving enclosure that has a front panel. The front panel of the foot receiving enclosure includes a face mounting device, for example a hook and loop fastener, a snap-fit connector, or the like. The front panel also includes at least two light mounts that are connected to a battery mounted in the foot receiving enclosure. A removable and interchangeable face may be mounted to the face mounting device. The eyes of the interchangeable face may be formed by apertures or by two lights with electrical connectors. If the eyes are formed by apertures in the interchangeable face, then two lights are mounted to the light mounts on the front of the foot receiving enclosure and the two lights are visible through the apertures in the interchangeable face. Alternatively, if the eyes of the interchangeable face are lights with electrical connectors, the electrical connectors of the lights are connected to the light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure when the interchangeable face is attached to the front panel. Once the lights on the interchangeable face are so connected, the battery in the foot receiving enclosure provides electricity to the lights.

In yet another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, a foot covering includes a foot receiving enclosure that has a front pane with a face mounting device to which a removable and interchangeable face may be attached. The interchangeable face includes eyes formed at least in part by two lights. The interchangeable face includes a battery for supplying electricity to the lights, and may also include a switch for making and breaking the electrical connection between the lights and the battery.

FIGS. 1A-1C show a first embodiment of footwear with lights that provide a “face” on the front of footwear. Footwear 10 includes sole 102 to which front panel 104 and side panels 105 are attached. In the illustrated embodiment, footwear 10 is a slipper or sandal lacking a covering for the rear portions of the foot and the heel. However, it is to be understood that footwear 10 may be any type of foot-receiving enclosure, including slippers, sandals, athletic shoes, casual or formal shoes, boots, etc. Throughout this disclosure, all types of footwear are interchangeable. For example, in any of the disclosed embodiments, it is to be understood that although only a few styles or types of foot-receiving enclosures are shown, the present disclosure relates to any type of footwear, shoe, sandal, boot etc.

As shown in FIG. 1A, footwear 10 also includes lights 106 and light strip 108. Together lights 106 and light strip 108 form a “face” with two eyes and optional other features such as a nose, mouth or any other facial feature. Lights 106 may be light emitting diodes (LED's), light bulbs, “glow in the dark” fluorescent or phosphorescent material, or any other light emitting device. Likewise, light strip 108 may be any type of light emitting device including LED's, light bulbs and fluorescent or phosphorescent material. Examples of glow in the dark materials include, without limitation, zinc sulfide, strontium aluminate and calcium sulfide, as is known by persons of ordinary skill in the art.

As shown in FIG. 1B, footwear 10 may also include a light band 110. For example, as illustrated, where footwear 10 is a slipper or sandal, the rear edge of front panel 104 and side panels 105 may be provided with light band 110 which is formed from a fluorescent or phosphorescent strip, LED's, light bulbs, or any other light emitting device. Further, footwear 10 may also include padding 112 attached to sole 102 in order to make footwear 10 more comfortable for users.

FIG. 1C shows a side view of footwear 10, which may further include battery compartment 120 which contains a battery for providing electricity to lights 106, light strip 108 and/or light band 110. However, it is to be understood that to the extent lights 106, light strip 108 and/or light band 110 are fluorescent or phosphorescent, no electricity source is required. In the illustrated embodiment, battery compartment 120 is shown in the toe of footwear 10. However, the precise location of battery compartment 120 is not critical. Battery compartment 120 may be located in the toe, sole or front/side panels of footwear 10 without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. Battery compartment 120 may be fabric, rubber, plastic or any other suitable material, but ideally segregates the contents of battery compartment 120 (such as a battery) from the inner enclosure of footwear 10 where the user's foot is disposed.

Additionally, footwear 10 may include switch 122. Switch 122 is connected to both a battery in battery compartment 120 and to one or more of lights 106, light strip 108 or light band 110 so that when switch 122 is activated, electricity flows to the various luminescent devices. As a pair of footwear 10 (e.g. right foot and left foot) each include switch 122, a user may activate and deactivate lights 106, light strip 108 or light band 110 by bringing each shoe/footwear into lateral contact with one another. Switch 122 may be, without limitation, a toggle switch that is activated by physically pressing the inside edges of each shoe/footwear together, or may be a magnetic switch that is triggered by bringing each shoe/footwear into close proximity with each other. Further, switch 122 may include an accelerometer that completes a circuit between a battery in battery compartment 120 and the various luminescent devices when sufficient acceleration is detected, for example when a user “taps” the shoes/footwear together or against another object.

FIG. 2A shows an embodiment of footwear with interchangeable covers or faces. Footwear 20 includes foot enclosure 201 and interchangeable cover 203. Interchangeable cover 203 is a shell or sheath that attaches externally to the front of footwear 20. As with the previously disclosed embodiments, it is to be understood that footwear 20 may be any type of foot receiving enclosure including any type of shoe, slipper, sandal, boot, etc. Interchangeable cover 203 may include indicia, lights, ornaments, etc. that provide interchangeable cover 203 with the appearance of a face, for example the face of an animal, person or fictional character. For example, in the illustrated embodiment, interchangeable cover 203 may have an animal face with ears, eyes and a nose. Eyes 206 may be indicia such as printed illustrations of eyes, may be lights, or may be apertures. For example, eyes 206 may be LED's, light bulbs or fluorescent/phosphorescent material. If eyes 206 are apertures in interchangeable cover 203, interchangeable cover 203 is preferably attached to footwear with built-in lights that are able to shine through the aperture eyes 206 of interchangeable cover 203. For example, in one embodiment, interchangeable cover 203 could be attached to footwear 10, previously disclosed above.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, footwear 20 may further include footwear light band 210 and/or cover light band 224. Both of these light bands may be any type of luminescent device including light bulbs, LED's and fluorescent/phosphorescent materials. Footwear light band 210 is similar to light band 110 disclosed above and forms an arch over the top of the foot of the user. Cover light band 224 is adjacent the rear edge of interchangeable cover 203.

If light band 224 is fluorescent/phosphorescent material, and if lights 206 are fluorescent/phosphorescent material or apertures, interchangeable cover 203 does not require a power supply. However, if either light band 224 or lights 206 are luminescent devices, a power supply must be provided, for example in cover battery compartment 220 which houses a battery connected to lights 206 and/or light band 224.

Interchangeable cover 203 also includes attachment devices 226 for attaching interchangeable cover 203 to footwear 20. Attachment devices 226 may be any type of fastener or gripper including hook and loop fasteners or a male-female snap-fit connector that mates with a complementary connector on sole 202 of footwear 20. Further, one or more of attachment devices 226 may include a conductive connector so that when interchangeable cover 203 is attached to footwear 20 there is an electrical connection between interchangeable cover 203 and footwear 20. One application of such an electrically conductive connection between interchangeable cover 203 and footwear 20 is to provide a battery in footwear 20 (as disclosed above with reference to footwear 10) instead of inside interchangeable cover 203. In this example, once interchangeable cover 203 is attached to footwear 20, any luminescent devices on interchangeable cover 203 such as lights 206 or cover light band 224 may be activated. The switch used to activate the luminescent devices may be of the type disclosed above with reference to footwear 10 and include toggle switches, magnetic switches and acceleration switches. In any embodiment, the lower edge of cover 203 may be flush with the lower edge of sole 202 once cover 203 is installed on foot enclosure 201.

FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show other examples of attachment devices 226 for interchangeable cover 203. FIG. 3 shows the bottom of one embodiment of interchangeable cover 203. In this embodiment, the bottom perimeter edge 230 of interchangeable cover 203 includes grippers 226A. Grippers 226A are essentially “teeth” or spines that cooperate with sole 202 of footwear 20 to frictionally and removably bind interchangeable cover 203 to footwear 20. For example, where sole 202 comprises a relatively soft material such as rubber, grippers 226A bite into sole 202 to hold interchangeable cover 203 in place. To increase the gripping force of grippers 226A, bottom edge 230 of interchangeable cover 203 may include retaining clip 228 (see FIG. 5). Retaining clip 228 is a resilient generally horseshoe-shaped member that can be spread open to accommodate footwear 20. Due to the resilient force of retaining clip 228 against sole 202 of footwear 20, grippers 226A will gain a better purchase on footwear 20 and therefore interchangeable cover 203 will be held securely in place.

As shown in FIG. 5, another example of attachment devices 226 for interchangeable cover 203 is male snap fit connector 226B which mates with complementary female connectors on sole 202 of footwear 20. It is to be understood that the illustrated embodiments of attachment devices 226 are non-limiting and other attachment devices may be used, including hook and loop fasteners, buttons, straps binding the rear edge of interchangeable cover 203 to the user's heal (or the heal of the footwear 20), or any other suitable fastener. For example, if a hook and loop fastener system is used as the attachment device, the hook material may be located on one or more inner surfaces of cover 203 that align with corresponding loop materials on outer surfaces of foot enclosure 201 or sole 202. Similarly, loop material may be located on one or more inner surfaces of cover 203 that align with corresponding hook materials on outer surfaces of foot enclosure 201 or sole 202.

In some embodiments, interchangeable cover 203 includes lights 206 and battery compartment 220 which contains a battery that provides electricity for lights 206 via one or more wires. Battery compartment 220 may be located anywhere on or inside interchangeable cover 203. For example, battery compartment 220 may be housed in a slit or pocket in cover 203 so that battery compartment 220 is concealed during normal use of footwear 20, for example in a slit, pocket or other enclosure behind the lights/eyes 206 on cover 203. Additionally, battery compartment 220 may incorporate one or more child-resistant fasteners to prevent a child user from opening battery compartment 220. Any type of battery may be used, including disk batteries of the type commonly found in small electrical devices such as cameras or watches. Lights 206 may be activated and deactivated by any means, including an on/off switch or an accelerometer switch that can detect movement and activate lights 206 when footwear 20 is moving, and deactivate lights 206 when footwear 20 has not moved for a predetermined amount of time such as one minute. The same switch may also be used to activate and deactivate other devices connected to the battery in battery compartment 220, for example a noise emitting device such as a small speaker or audio devices commonly used in greeting cards. In some embodiments, lights and speakers may be activated simultaneously to provide synchronized or programmed lights and sounds.

The materials used to make the footwear and interchangeable covers disclosed above are not critical. However, in some embodiments, the footwear may have a rubber sole and fabric side and front panels with fabric, felt, rubber or polymeric padding on top of the sole inside the foot receiving enclosure. The interchangeable cover may likewise be made from any suitable material including fabric, plastic, rubber, other polymeric materials such as polyethylene or materials commonly used for costume masks, and may also at least partially comprise fuzz, flocking, metallic or reflective materials. Eyes or lights 206 may be formed from plastic separately from cover 203 and then attached to cover 203 by welding such as sonic or thermal welding, adhesives, or any other suitable means of attachment.

One of the advantages of the disclosed embodiments is that users may greatly increase the possible appearances of shoes. For example, a user may own one pair of footwear and attach several different interchangeable covers each day. Rather than owning many different pairs of footwear, the user can simply interchange covers for the footwear. This is particularly true for children's footwear because children quickly outgrow footwear and it quickly becomes expensive to provide a child with many different footwear options that the child will outgrow. Instead of buying new footwear, the child can simply use different interchangeable covers. Further, even as the child grows into larger pairs of footwear, the same interchangeable covers may be used because the interchangeable covers are somewhat universal in size and do not require specific shoe sizes in order to function. However, it is to be understood that the exact size of the interchangeable covers are not critical, and interchangeable covers of any size are within the scope of the present disclosure.

What has been described above includes examples of one or more embodiments. It is, of course, not possible to describe every conceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes of describing the aforementioned embodiments, but one of ordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of various embodiments are possible. Accordingly, the described embodiments are intended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the term “includes” is used in either the detailed description or the claims, such term is intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpreted when employed as a transitional word in a claim. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A foot covering, comprising: a foot receiving enclosure having a sole, side panels and a front panel; at least two lights attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure; a battery mounted to the foot receiving enclosure; an activatable switch connected to the battery and to the at least two lights for making and breaking an electrical connection between the battery and the at least two lights; and a face formed on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the face having two eyes formed by the at least two lights attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure.
 2. The foot covering of claim 1, wherein the activatable switch comprises an accelerometer, and wherein the activatable switch is activated when the accelerometer detects an acceleration of the foot covering greater than a threshold acceleration.
 3. The foot covering of claim 2, wherein the activatable switch is activated by a wearer of the foot covering colliding the foot covering with an object in order to exceed the threshold acceleration.
 4. The foot covering of claim 1, wherein the at least two lights are light emitting diodes.
 5. A foot covering with interchangeable faces, the foot covering comprising: a foot receiving enclosure having a sole, side panels and a front panel with a face mounting device; at least two light mounts attached to the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure; a battery mounted to the foot receiving enclosure and electrically connected to the at least two light mounts; and an interchangeable face removably attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the interchangeable face comprising two eyes.
 6. The foot covering of claim 5, wherein a light is mounted to each of the at least two light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure.
 7. The foot covering of claim 6, wherein the two eyes of the interchangeable face comprise two apertures, and wherein when the interchangeable face is attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the lights mounted to the light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure are visible through the apertures of the interchangeable face.
 8. The foot covering of claim 6, wherein the lights mounted to the at least two light mounts on the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure are integral with the interchangeable face, and wherein when the interchangeable face is removed from the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the lights are disconnected from the at least two light mounts.
 9. The foot covering of claim 6, wherein the lights are light emitting diodes.
 10. The foot covering of claim 5, wherein the face mounting device comprises a hook and loop fastener.
 11. The foot covering of claim 5, wherein the face mounting device comprises a snap-fit connector.
 12. A foot covering system with interchangeable faces, the foot covering system comprising: a foot receiving enclosure having a sole, side panels and a front panel with a face mounting device; and an interchangeable face removably attached to the face mounting device of the front panel of the foot receiving enclosure, the interchangeable face comprising: two eyes formed from two lights attached to the interchangeable face; a battery attached to the interchangeable face and connected to the two lights; a switch connected to the two lights and the battery for making and breaking an electrical connection between the two lights and the battery.
 13. The foot covering system of claim 12, wherein the two lights are light emitting diodes.
 14. The foot covering system of claim 12, wherein the face mounting device comprises a hook and loop fastener.
 15. The foot covering system of claim 12, wherein the face mounting device comprises a snap-fit connector.
 16. A footwear covering system, comprising: a piece of footwear having a sole with a perimeter boundary material; and a footwear cover comprising: an attachment device; a sheath attached to the resilient clamp and forming an elongate arcuate cover; and indicia on the sheath portraying a face of a character.
 17. The footwear covering system of claim 16, wherein the attachment device comprises a snap-fit connector.
 18. The footwear covering system of claim 16, wherein the attachment device comprises a resilient clamp with an inner surface with grippers, the resilient clamp being shaped to conform with the perimeter boundary material of the sole of the piece of footwear.
 19. The foot covering of claim 16, further comprising a battery compartment inside the footwear cover.
 20. The foot covering system of claim 17, wherein the snap-fit connector comprises conductors that establish an electrical connection when the snap-fit connector is mated with a complementary connector on the piece of footwear.
 21. The foot covering system of claim 21, wherein the piece of footwear further comprises a battery compartment housing a battery. 